As the use of computing in modem enterprises has grown, the need for management of computing resources has also grown. In an effort to account for and control costs, organizations have realized they must collect detailed data on the utilization of computing resources throughout the enterprise.
Printers and other output devices present a particularly difficult data collection problem. Large numbers of users located across an enterprise network may send output jobs throughout the organization, through various pipelines, complicating utilization tracking. This information is particularly relevant given the large amounts an enterprise may spend on purchasing and maintaining printer and output hardware, in addition to paper and other supplies.
Current methods for collecting utilization data for printers and other output devices are inefficient. Frequently, data about print jobs are stored on separate devices, if they are stored at all. One existing method involves collecting data using the printer driver software on the personal computer initiating the print job. While the device may accumulate information about a print job's file size, user name, and processor time, information about the job often is incomplete since it does not include data from the printer, such as number of pages printed, number of lost pages, or amount of toner used.
Furthermore, as a user moves around an enterprise using different devices to initiate output jobs, the enterprise may wish to track how much the user prints to a particular device or how much paper is used or misused in the process, regardless of which device initiates the output job. Currently, gathering and analyzing such data can be prohibitively difficult since existing solutions store the information within multiple devices.
Ultimately, in view of the above, it can be appreciated that it would be desirable to have the ability to accurately account for a user's print utilization throughout an enterprise in a centralized fashion.